White
Plains, BATTLE AT.
General Howe dared not
attack the entrenched American camp on
Harlem Heights, so he attempted to gain the rear of Washington's
army, and hem them in on the upper part of Manhattan Island. To do
this he landed a considerable force at Throgg's Point, Westchester
county, and sent armed ships up the Hudson to cut off supplies for
the Americans by water from the north and west. Perceiving the
gathering of danger,
George Washington called a council of war at his headquarters on
Harlem Heights, which was the deserted mansion of
Roger Morris, who married
Mary Phillipse (see
WASHINGTON, GEORGE). Morris had espoused the cause of the crown,
and fled from his mansion with his family.

At
that council, held October 16, 1776, it was determined to extend the
army beyond the King's Bridge into Westchester county, abandoning
the island, excepting the strong work known as
Fort Washington, on
the highest point of the island. Arranged in four divisions, under
Generals Lee, Heath, Sullivan,
and Lincoln, the army concentrated at the village of White Plains,
and formed an entrenched camp. The two armies were each about 13,000
strong. On the morning of October 28, after a series of skirmishes,
1,600 men from Delaware and Maryland had taken post on Chatterton's
Hill, a lofty eminence west of the Bronx River, and to these
General
McDougall led reinforcements, with two pieces of cannon under
Captain Alexander
Hamilton, and took the chief command there. Washington, with the
rest of the army, was on the lower ground just north of the village.

CHATTERTON'S HILL, FROM THE RAILWAY STATION.

The British army advanced to the attack in two divisions, the right
led by Sir Henry Clinton
and the left by Generals De Meister and Erskine. Howe was with the
latter. He had moved with great caution since his landing. Inclining
his army to the left, he planted almost twenty field-pieces on the
slope south of the village, and under cover of these a bridge was
constructed, and British and German troops passed the Bronx and
attacked the Americans on Chatterton's Hill. Hamilton's little
battery made them recoil at first, but, being reinforced, they drove
the Americans from their position.
McDougall led his troops to
Washington's camp, leaving the British in possession of the hill.
Washington's breastworks were composed of cornstalks covered rather
hastily and lightly by earth; but they appeared so formidable that
Howe dared not attack them, but waited for reinforcements. Just as
they appeared a severe storm of wind and rain set in. Washington
perceiving Howe's advantage, withdrew under cover of darkness, in
the night of October 31, behind entrenchments on the hills of North
Castle, towards the Croton River. Howe did not follow; but, falling
back, encamped on the heights of Fordham. The loss of the Americans
in the skirmishes on October 26, and the battle on the 28th, did not
exceed, probably, 300 men in killed, wounded, and prisoners; that of
the British was about the same.

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